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How To Repair TheTowing Eye

Story And Photo By Tom NealePublished: Fall 2013

Your tow eye takes a lot of stress. Inspect it, and if you need to replace it or beef it up, here's how.

Some boats aren't built heavily enough in the bow stem area where the towing eye is located. Stress from pulling the boat up on the trailer, securing for trips with the strap, and towing in the water can weaken the attachment over time, sometimes resulting in the eye pulling out. If your boat has this issue, it's easier to repair before the eye pulls through.

Remove the nut(s) from the eye bolt(s) that goes through the stem. Remove the eye fitting and check carefully for signs of crevice corrosion (especially where it goes through the hull and under the nut). If there's any question, buy a new eye — the stronger the better. It'll have to fit in the existing flattened base in the stem unless you want to carefully enlarge that with a file or power tools.

Beef up the area behind the stem by thoroughly sanding, cleaning with solvent, and epoxying on heavy layers of woven fiberglass cloth according to product instructions. Within reason, the more layers and the more area covered, the better. While the new fiberglass is still soft, flatten the area around the bolt hole(s) to provide a base for nut and backing. With a drill, extend the hole(s) through added layers. Install the eye and as large a backup plate as possible. Depending on circumstances, backing could be a heavy, large-diameter stainless washer or, preferably, a 316 stainless plate that will fit in the V area.